ACTINOMERIS SQUARROSA. 



SQUARROSE ACTINOMERIS. 



NATURAL ORDER, ASTERACE^E (COMPOSITE). 



Actinomeris squarrosa, Nuttall. — Stem somewhat hairy and winged above, four to eight 

 feet high; leaves alternate or the lower opposite, oblong or ovate-lancelate, pointed at both 

 ends ; heads in an open corymbed panicle ; scales of the involucre in two rows, the outer 

 linear-spatulate reflexed ; rays four to ten, irregular; achenia broadly winged ; receptacle 

 globular. (Gray's Manual of the Botany of the Northern United States. Sec also Chap- 

 man's Flora of the Southern United States and Wood's Class-Book of Botany.) 



HE species which we now illustrate is not one that will 

 attract by its beauty, if by beauty we understand mere 

 color. But to the true lover of nature, or to the botanical 

 student, it will be acceptable, for there are few which are so 

 instructive, or which afford so many lessons. The plants called 

 Umbellifercz, such as the carrot, parsnip, celery, and so on, are 

 nearly related to the Composites, of which our plant is a repre- 

 sentative. Yet we must look at these two orders in the light of 

 morphological law to see the relationship ; for in general appear- 

 ance they are so different that it has been found necessary to 

 place them somewhat widely apart in the systematic classification 

 of the orders. When we examine a plant of the umbelliferous 

 order, we see that the flower is composed of five distinct petals, 

 and of five stamens, each of which is likewise separate and dis- 

 tinct from the other ; but in the flowers of the Composite the 

 normal five-petalled corolla is united into a tubular one, and the 

 anthers are also united together by their edges, so that the 

 pistil, as it grows, has to push through the united mass. Now 

 morphology teaches us that all the parts of a plant are normally 

 leaf-blades, and that from the various degrees of union or oi 



